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This is the last God 52 post that we’ll be writing. It’s frustrating that we’ve got so close to the end of the year, but for both of us, it’s become impossible to continue the project with integrity. If you’ve been following along, we’re especially sorry – and would encourage you to keep making a weekly effort to move on with God in the areas of discipline, character and mission.

Here’s why we feel we can’t go on: for both of us, 2013 has contained more change and upheaval than either of us could ever have foreseen. For Martin this is about to become much more intense with the birth of his fourth child (Jamie will not be having a child). Of course, it wouldn’t take us very long to fire out a weekly challenge, but the idea behind God 52 was always that we were taking part in the activities, not just encouraging others to do so. We both recognise that our current workloads do not make it possible for us to commit to keep doing so over the last few months of the year.

Moreover, we both acknowledge of late that our own participation in the challenges has been patchier than we would have liked. So, even though it’s a huge disappointment to us both, for integrity’s sake we feel it’s the right time to call it a day.

If someone else out there would like to take on the God 52 concept, website and so on, then we’d love to hear from you – just drop us an email. We certainly don’t want to hold on to this if others might want to keep it going.

Please understand this has not been an easy decision, or one that we’ve taken lightly. Again, sincere apologies if you feel let down by this.

Yep, we’re late again. But there’s a really good reason for that – both halves of the God 52 machine have started new jobs this week. (For more details, search around the interwebs.) And I think I can speak on behalf of both of us when I say that we’re both really excited about what we’re stepping in to.

There’s something brilliant about starting something new…

36: Start something new

It could be a hobby, an activity, a diet, an area of ministry, a discipline, maybe even a new job (please don’t quit your job and blame u), but use the start of September (I’m a youth worker and a football fan, this is the real new year) to dive into something new, something that feeds you, something that energizes you, something that gets you out of bed in the morning.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of praying for friends to know and experience the love of God; if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.

We all (and by ‘we’ I mean those of us who define ourselves as Christians) want our friends to know the love of God for themselves, right? I trust we’re not so fragmented a body that we can’t all agree on that one.

Yet if that’s what we want, how much of our time do we actually invest in helping that to happen? Perhaps the answer to that is actually ‘a lot’. Perhaps you spend a lot of your time performing practical acts of love for others which reflect God’s love for them. And if so, great.

This week’s challenge isn’t about that though. This week we’re not thinking about what we can do, but how we can pray for those same friends. This week, we’re going to be disciplined to pray regularly for those friends:

35: Write down the names of three friends, and begin praying for each of them to know and experience the love of God.

For some of us, that’s a lot harder than performing practical acts (for others of us it’s a lot easier). Still, the parable of the persistent widow demonstrates that God is persuaded to act when we petition him in prayer. So this week, let’s show some persistence for those who we long to see in relationship with God. Let’s not just talk, think or tweet about praying for our friends – let’s actually do it.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of praying for friends to know and experience the love of God; if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.

I just moved house and, whenever I move or pack I discover one thing – I’m a hoarder. (Martin has already covered some of this in week fifteen). Me and my girlfriend went through mountains of clothes, many of which I haven’t worn or even remembered for years, and yet whenever she went to chuck anything away my response was the same – ‘Yeah, but what if…’

‘What if?’ I think this might be one of the more damaging statements we can define ourselves by. When Jesus sent off the disciples to go and do stuff (technical theological term) he said, ‘Do not take a purse or bag or sandals.’

I imagine the response went something like -‘Woah, but Jesus…’ ‘Did you misunderstand that? DID I STUTTER?’ ‘No, but what if…?’

BOOM. There it is. What if…?

I’m beginning to realise that following Jesus is about letting go of our ‘what ifs’ and embracing the risk-taking, terrifying, uncertain, world-changing life to the full that he offers. So here’s this week’s challenge…

34: Get rid of a safety net

Right, key youth work point – some safety nets are good. Others are not. Get rid of the ones that are holding you back. This is pretty vague but hopefully as you read this something is popping into your head. That will (hopefullly) be God. Job’s-a-good’un.

We’re always on the look out for guest bloggers. If you’d like to write a guest post this week on getting rid of safety nets or risk taking, please read our writing guidelines, then drop Martin an email.

This week, many of my friends will be heading to an inevitably-soggy field in Shepton Mallet for the Soul Survivor youth festival. I’m not going this year (feel my pain), as my heavily-pregnant wife would not be blessed by six days of unassisted bath-times and bedtimes for our three other little smashers. So instead, I’m able to spend the week reflecting on what I’ve previously learned from attending what I’ve found to be a fantastic event.

Last year, I felt God speak to me during the sung worship at the event. I was really enjoying the experience – it’s hard not to when you’re surrounded by 10,000 enthusiastic teenagers, jumping up and down and shouting ‘whoa-oa-oa’ (surely the primal cry of the great psalmists). But what I felt God might be asking me was this: ‘it’s great that you enjoy worshipping me like this… but is this all worship is?’ It gave me pause as I considered that question. Do I just perform acts of worship, or do I live a life of worship?

The spiritual discipline of worship is about making a hundred different choices, every day, to honour and step closer to God, rather than making a movement in the opposite direction. Worship and sin are polar opposites, and as we navigate each day, we choose to point, in everything we do, toward one pole or the other. So this week’s challenge is about developing an awareness of our choices – to either worship God, or ignore and reject him, in the minute details of our day.

33: Worship God this week through the way you live, not just through singing

If you’re at the Soul Survivor festival this week, you might find this challenge particularly helpful – but wherever you are, see it as an opportunity to become more aware of your decisions, and how God might feel about them.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of worship – beyond singing; if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.

Which sounds weird, and perhaps a little dodgy. Is this some new drug?

No. When we say carpet, we mean carpet. That stuff people use to cover floors with, you know?

I suppose I’d better explain.

When I was studying for my degree, I made some very close friends. Friends who knew more about me than most. Friends with whom I snuffled with laughter and sniffled with tears.

And then there was the carpet snorter. Let’s call her Sarah, because that is her name.

Sarah and I did our fair bit of snuffling and sniffling. It was quite obvious from the beginning that this friendship would be marked by a lot of hilarity, as well as honest tears. (We even bellow with laughter about the bad bits in life. It makes them slightly more manageable.)

We would laugh so hard it crippled us; other students would find us hanging from the railings on the college staircase, unable to continue our upward (or indeed downward) journey because laughter had stolen our ability to use our legs.

(Sarah was not the only friend with whom I collapsed under the weight of joy; there were others – dear Susan, with whom I was bundled down the fire escape, because our mirth was too big for one library. The memory still gets me a-snuffling.)

One day, Sarah and I were laughing. About what? Who knows. We laughed so hard we ended up lying on the floor. And then, through splutters, one of us said: “I just snorted carpet up my nose!”

I think it was Sarah, but it might have been me. In the moments of laughter we merged into one giggling entity.

But the phrase was coined, and thus it is how we measure a friendship.

“I’ve made a new friend, but I don’t know if she is carpet snorting material,” one tells the other.

“I really need to meet a carpet snorter,” says one, on moving into a new neighbourhood.

I’m moving in the autumn. New area, new church, new neighbours. I really hope there’s a carpet snorter there somewhere. It will be a challenge in making new friends but also in maintaining old ones. I’ll need to work at keeping friendships alive.

Because even (or especially) carpet snorting friends aren’t made automatically; we need to invest, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. Both laughter and tears come from a place of vulnerability. Being ourselves, whatever the world thinks. Challenging one another to find shared joy where there was only individual sadness.

We call it carpet snorting.

Lucy Mills is a freelance writer and member of the Magnet editorial team – an ecumenical Christian resources magazine. Her website and blog can be found at www.lucy-mills.com. She tweets as @lucymills. Her big passion is the book she’s writing, called ‘Forgetful Heart’ – looking at what it means to remember God in our daily lives, and confessing she’s not very good at it.

(Warning, this first thought sounds far more self-important and pompous than it actually is.) Sometimes the most spiritual acts are the most natural ones. Example – I spent a lot of time in the last week visiting friends I hadn’t seen in a while, laughing with friends I hadn’t seen in a while, driving between friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

If we don’t acknowledge these relationships as being spiritual then we lose so much of what these relationships have to offer. We’re created as inherently relational beings, ones who crave love. Ones who want to be known, to be secure and, perhaps most crucially, to enjoy. And God is in the midst of that.

So this week’s challenge might be the most fun one yet.

32: Carve out some intentional time with good friends.

Sound easy? Good. Enjoy it.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of friendship – if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.

This week’s challenge is all about submission – but that word might not quite mean what you think (or fear) it means… Here, Tania Vaughan writes about how Peter’s struggle to submit to God, sometimes mirrors her own…

As disciplines go, this is probably the one I find most difficult; giving control over and submitting to God is probably my biggest struggle and I see some of that struggle in the life of Peter.

A refusal of cleansing. In John 13:8 Peter refused Jesus washing His feet, he was refusing the love and service that Jesus wanted to give Him. There are times when I refuse God’s correction, discipline, cleansing or care because I feel I’m not worthy of having His love and grace poured over me. Jesus told Peter that without this act He could have no part with Him and when I refuse to let God in to cleanse me it puts a strain on my relationship with Him.

The fear of getting it wrong.Matthew 14:28-29 is often used as a wonderful example of stepping out in faith but it also reminds me, that sometimes I think that if I take control the it’s less likely to go wrong. When I see/hear God I step out in faith just like Peter stepped out of the boat, but then thinking I see the plan I start rushing forward without being prepared, I take my eyes off of Jesus and then things start going wrong, like Peter, I start sinking. Submitting isn’t about jumping in feet first, there is a submission in being quiet and still, waiting on God, listening and allowing Him to prepare me for the next step.

A plan that makes no sense. I like to know where I’m going, what I’m doing and every step in between, God doesn’t! God shows the next step, no final destination and no big plan laid out. Sometimes the next step makes no sense whatsoever! Like Peter in Matthew 16:22 I find myself having a word with God about what He thinks He’s doing and pointing out that this next step He seems to be focused on is pointless and unnecessary. When we focus on what makes sense in the here and now, we can miss out on a vital step to something great that God wants to do; we become our own stumbling block.

Stepping forward. At times we need to refuse, we need to fail and to fear, all so that we can learn that actually to truly move forward we have to submit. Submission is not about giving up or giving in, it’s about moving into a deeper relationship and accepting what God wants to give. Peter did all of these things and he learned and he grew and then he went out and fulfilled his God given ministry.

Tania Vaughan is a wife, mother, writer, speaker and “above all else a cherished child of God just trying to be faithful in a mixed up world to the call to share and encourage others in their walk”. Tania blogs at www.taniavaughan.com; follow her on Twitter @TaniaJVaughan

One of the key elements of God 52 is exploring the Spiritual Disciplines, and how they can integrate practically with modern life. Some of them are more obvious or well-known than others; some feel easier than others to accommodate in 2013. If there’s one discipline however that fails to sit well in either of those categories, it’s the discipline of submission.

Submission is a very loaded word, immediately conjuring up images of oppressive patriarchs, over-bearing husbands or even slaves willingly conceding to their masters. In the context of the spiritual disciplines however, Submission doesn’t mean any of these things. Instead, it’s the working-through of Jesus’ challenge that ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’

Practicing submission is simply choosing to put the needs, joys and ambitions of others ahead of our own. It’s about considering, every day, how we can make ourselves ‘the very last’; to prefer our friends, our families, and even our enemies above ourselves.

In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster suggests seven ‘directions’ in which we can practice submission. Some of them are much easier than others- all involve personal sacrifice, self-discipline, and doing things we probably wouldn’t choose to. So we submit:

To God… being able to say to God: I’ll go where you want me to go, not just in the big things like where we choose to live or work, but in the minutia of every day.

To the Bible… making a lifelong commitment to reading and – through the intervention of the Spirit – understanding the Bible better, so that we might then be informed in every decision about the way of God.

To our family… we submit to our parents as we honour them, just as God commands Moses. As adults, we submit to our wives and husbands out of reverence for Christ, and thus look to ‘die’ for one another in the way that He ultimately loved the church.

To our neighbours… because true community is about seeing that no-one goes without. It is about stepping out of the isolation of our own homes, and recognising that we should ‘do life’ with the people whom we live alongside.

To the church… an intrinsic part of God’s rescue plan for the world – so we must learn to submit to it. Giving ourselves, and our resources to the local church – even when we don’t agree with every matter of style or policy – is a vital aspect of the discipline of submission.

To the broken… The Bible is literally overflowing with references to the poor, and to the imperative for God-followers to serve them. This is perhaps the most intuitive application of Jesus command for us to become ‘the very last’ – we are even to submit ourselves to those the world would value least of all.

To the world… In one of the most extraordinary passages in the New Testament, John 13: 1-17, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. This is not about who they are – it is all about who He is. And Jesus really wants us to understand that this picture is for us to replicate. So for all of us, young and old, the discipline of submission requires us to ask: what does it mean to wash the feet of the world?

Submission is compelling because it points to and models the way of the crucified Christ. It requires us to ask, what does it really mean to live out Jesus’ words in Luke 9: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’

This week’s challenge then:

31: Choose to put first the needs and priorities of a group, individual or institution that you find it difficult to practice submission to.

Sound difficult? Of course it does. Persevere anyhow – and may God draw closer to you as a result.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of submission – if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.

I was in South Africa last week. I wrote a bit about it here, and that was the inspiration for this week’s challenge. I’ll copy and paste a bit of it, but take two minutes and read the whole thing. There’s a hilarious anecdote and some confusing imagery.

Here’s the crux of it –

It wasn’t the poverty that struck me in South Africa. What struck me was just how divided the nation still is. Apartheid is over, black people are, legally, equal with their white counterparts, but it remains a divided country. In the township we worked in we didn’t see another white face for the six days we were there. In the white town, Delmas, where we went to church on the day before work began, we barely saw anyone who wasn’t white. These two communities are a few miles apart. During the Sunday service the pastor alluded to the fact that many of the congregation would have never entered the township before, and would have no plans to ever do so. Throughout our week there white people were telling us of the challenge and provocation that our trip was providing while black people thanked us for showing them that white people do care.

To be honest, going to South Africa to tell kids about Jesus and build houses was, dare I say it, easy. Had I been asked to go and do the same on the local council estate, or with those people down the road, or that family I don’t get on with, I’d have found it a lot more difficult. Our segregation might not be as obvious as it was in Delmas but it still exists.

I write a bit more about it on the Youthwork website, check it out. But here’s the challenge –

30: Cross a boundary (social, economic, whatever) that you wouldn’t normally cross to engage in the mission of God.

It could be as easy as buying a homeless person a cup of tea or talking to your local conservative party representative. Whatever you feel your mission is currently restricted by – ignore that restriction.

Got it? Good. Off you go.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on this subject – if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.